Never A Right Time
by Forever Endeavor One
Summary: "All you had to do was try, but you didn't. You kept telling me to wait, but I can't. You said we'd be happy even if nobody knew about us being together, but I'm not."


Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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><p>By the time he had arrived at the lab, the rain had started to downpour. Again he questioned himself as to why he didn't just grab his umbrella when he had a chance to back at his apartment. So his only option was to run as fast as he could towards the entrance of the building and hope that he didn't get too wet. But because it was raining so hard, he was drenched within his first few steps out of the car.<p>

As he finally reached the entrance, he was completely soaked from head to toe. He said a quick hello to Judy as he made his way towards the locker room hoping that he at least had a change of clothes in his locker. Luckily he had an extra shirt. Though it was dirty, he was happy enough to be in dry clothes. He wasn't lucky enough to have an extra pair of pants though so he'd have to deal with it being wet for now.

As he exited the locker room he made his way towards the break room wanting to get some coffee to help him warm up. As he neared the room, he saw that Greg and Sara were sitting at the table having what looked like a small argument.

He entered the room and put on a small smile and made his presence known.

Sara gave him a small wave in return and instantly turned back to Greg. Greg on the other hand ignored Nick and played with the pen that he had in his hands. A small pain shot through Nick as he saw that the younger man was still choosing to ignore him. He made his way towards the coffee pot quickly wiping away the tears that had formed in his eyes making sure neither one of the two saw anything.

As he filled in his cup, he listened in on the conversation that Greg and Sara were having.

"Greg, you're unbelievable you know that?" Sara scoffed.

"Sara, drop it." Greg responded as he continued to play with the pen in his hands. "And I thought we were done talking about this. You said you wouldn't bring it up again."

Greg sat back further into the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Sara rolled her eyes at him.

"I wouldn't have to keep bringing it up if you would just throw the piece of paper away like I told you to."

Nick's ears perked up at that but still chose to say nothing and reached over for some sugar packets. Greg shook his head.

"It would be a waste if I did that."

"Greg, she's a possible suspect for the murder of her boyfriend. That alone should be enough reason to throw away her phone number."

"Sara, you're being unreasonable!"

"Greg, you're being an idiot!"

Nick was about to cut in when Grissom walked into the room. His eyes directly set onto Nick and raised his eyebrows.

"Nicky, I'd like to have a word with you." He turned to the other two in the room. "Sara, I need you to go back to the crime scene that you and Greg were at yesterday. Find anything, anything at all that might suggest that another woman was involved in the relations to Mr. North's death."

Sara gave Greg one last look that said 'we're not done talking about this' before nodding and making her way out of the room. Grissom then turned to Greg.

"Greg, you've made good progress with the interrogation of Mrs. Fisher. She seems to only open up to you, so I'd like you to try and get more information out of her."

And with that, Greg left the room also. Grissom made his way to the table and turned to Nick. He motioned for Nick to sit down.

"Nick, are you having any problems that I should know about?"

Nick's eyes widened as Grissom asked him the question. He tilted his head down and stared into the murky coffee that was in his cup.

"No. Why are you asking?"

"Nicky, don't lie to me." Grissom continued. "This is the third time this week that you've came in late to work. You always look tired and worn out and there are dark circles under your eyes."

"I'm fine Gris. There isn't anything wrong. Just having a hard time sleeping that's all." Nick rubbed his hands tiredly over his face and let out a sigh.

"Maybe you should take some time off? You look like you could use the rest Nick." Grissom suggested.

Nick just shook his head. "Seriously Grissom, I'm fine. Just give me a case to work on."

Grissom continued to stare at Nick still not believing that the Texan was in his words 'fine' but decided to let it go for now.

"Alright, go meet up and help Sara and Greg with their case." Grissom reached into the folder that was in his hands and handed Nick a slip. "Since Greg doesn't really need help on the interrogation, go help Sara gather more evidence."

Nick stood up and turned to leave before Grissom called out to him again.

"Nick."

"Yeah?"

"We're here for you Nick. Don't be afraid to come and talk to me or anyone on the team if you need any help."

Nick once again looked down before looking at his supervisor.

"Thanks Gris."

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><p>"I mean can you believe him? The thought of keeping a telephone number of a woman that might just be the murderer of her boyfriend doesn't even seem to register in his mind."<p>

Nick and Sara had just finished up going through the crime scene again and were now on their way to drop off their newly discovered evidence. Since he arrived to help Sara, she had been going on nonstop about the woman that had taken a liking to Greg. He had been silent throughout her rant just nodding occasionally as he continued on with his work.

"Alright, well I'm going to go through this new evidence and see if I can find anything. Why don't you go grab some coffee, it looked like you were about to fall over when we were collecting evidence earlier."

Nick nodded and made his way towards the break room not at all surprised that Greg was already there. He entered and once again made his presence known. And he was once again ignored. And that was when Nick had finally had enough. He made his way towards Greg and slammed his palms on the table. That finally made Greg look at him.

"Are you seriously just going to keep on ignoring me?"

Greg continued to look up at him with a blank expression on his face.

"Greg!"

"Why shouldn't I?" It came out of Greg's mouth so softly that Nick would have missed it if he wasn't standing so close to him.

Nick straightened himself up and gave a disbelieving look towards the former lab rat.

"Because you're the one that broke up with me."

And the moment that it left his mouth, he knew it was the wrong thing to say.

"We could have made this work Nick!" Greg yelled motioning his hands between the two of them. "We could have. But like always, you put everything else before me! When you asked me to keep our relationship a secret, I listened! When you said that living together would cause people at work to suspect that something was going on between us, I kept quiet! When your parents were coming into town and you had to use a random woman as a hook up to keep your perfect image for them, I pretended I was alright with it!"

Greg's yelling was starting to draw attention and Nick made to close the door to the break room so the people in the lab wouldn't hear what was being said. But before he could reach to close the door, Greg got in his way and was in his face again.

"But when I say that I love you, and you can't even say it back, that's where I draw the line!"

Greg's voice hitched as the words came out of his mouth as he tried desperately to keep the tears from falling. He couldn't let the tears fall. He wouldn't.

"All you had to do was try Nick. But you didn't. You wouldn't. You're so scared of what people would think if they found out you were in love with me that you'd choose to live a lie instead of being happy. You keep telling me 'Wait just a little bit longer G, I promise we'll tell everyone soon.' But I can't. Not anymore Nick. You said we'd be happy even if nobody knew about us being together, but I'm not."

As Greg finished, the two of them were left in an uncomfortable silence. The rage that was etched in Greg's face moments ago was gone as he let out a sigh and looked towards the floor. Nick on the other hand was left to stare at the man he still loved wanting desperately to take the younger man into his arms and hug him until all the pain was gone. But he had lost that privilege. And everything Greg had said had been true. He was about to say something when Grissom entered the break room.

"Guys, what's going on?" Grissom stared at the two of them. "I could hear you arguing all the way from my office. Is there a problem?"

The two of them shifted uncomfortably as neither of them wanted to answer the question. Greg continued to look at the ground as Nick looked at Grissom still waiting for an answer.

"Just got into a little argument over the case is all." Nick sheepishly laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

Grissom tilted his head slightly and raised his eyebrow at the Texan. Nick wasn't quite sure if his supervisor believed him or not. He saw Grissom eying Greg and he turned to look at the younger man as well.

"Well, are you guys finished with the case file?"

"Yeah, I think so." Nick said as he looked at Greg. Grissom did the same. Greg finally looked up at the other two as he grabbed the folder off of the table and made his way to Grissom. He kept his eyes to the ground as he passed by Nick.

As Greg handed the folder to Grissom, Nick noticed as a tiny wet spot formed on the cover of the folder and ran down the length of it. He also noticed as Grissom tilt his head again as if trying to see Greg's face.

"I guess we are."

Greg handed the folder over to his supervisor and left the room.


End file.
